Ai Between a Miao and a Fu
by MWolfL
Summary: Sagwa is now an adult and Fu-Fu's colony is moving far away! Sagwa ends up missing him so much that she falls into a depression, making her realize that she loves him. But will they ever see each other again? SagwaXFu-Fu
1. FuFu and Sagwa's Closeness is Discovered

A.N. The title, in Chinese, means 'love between a cat and bat'. Had to look up the 'love' part.

It was now years later, Dongwa and Sagwa were both adults. Sheegwa was now a teenager. Not much had changed in their personalities, but there were subtle differences. Dongwa was now a lot more mature, and only showed his spunky, mischievous side when he played with his alley cat friends. Otherwise he was a lot more respectful and had stopped teasing his younger sisters. Also, he had mastered Tai-Chi, and his parents decided that he didn't have to become a scribe because of that. For one thing he could use Tai-Chi to protect his sisters. Sheegwa was still her sweet playful self, but had grown more confident. Especially in calligraphy, which she had improved in greatly ever since her tail grew out. Sagwa was the one who had changed the least. The only difference was that she was more likely to think out her actions whenever she went on an adventure, resulting in her getting into trouble less often.

Their grandparents had passed on due to old age, but the rest of their family was still alive. Fu-Fu still visited the palace, especially Sagwa. The two had always been inseparable and they still were. The Foolish Magistrate, Tai-Tai, and their daughters were pretty much the same apart from being older. Ba-Do was still very close to Sagwa, and had found more about Fu-Fu through that.

It happened one day when the daughters had a free day from their lessons. Luk-Do and Huang-Do immediately wanted to shop in the village, but Ba-Do hadn't been able to play with Sagwa for a while due to their respective duties and decided to do that instead. When she neared the garden looking for Sagwa she saw her playing with Fu-Fu.

"Hello." Ba-Do smiled, recognizing the bat.

Fu-Fu, startled, flew into a nearby tree.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you." Ba-Do drew closer. "Say I recognize you, you're that bat mom tried to keep in a cage." She then looked at Sagwa. "This explains why you were in the palace in the first place, you're a friend of Sagwa's."

Fu-Fu nodded, flying closer since he knew that Ba-Do favored Sagwa and so wouldn't capture him or anything for her sake.

"Wow, you're one lucky cat." Ba-Do smiled to Sagwa.

Sagwa meowed in agreement.

"Well, I came out to play with you, but I can play with both you and your bat friend if you want me too."

Sagwa and Fu-Fu did. They ended up having a fun time and Ba-Do and Fu-Fu became close friends.

The rest of the family found out too, and welcomed Fu-Fu as an unofficial member of the palace. Sagwa eventually wrote Fu-Fu's name on a scroll so that the humans could know it. Fu-Fu started hanging out with Sagwa and her siblings more often than he hung out with his colony.


	2. Depressing News

A couple months after that, Fu-Fu visited the palace visibly upset.

"What's wrong Fu-Fu?" Sheegwa asked.

"My colony is moving to another cave very far away." Fu-Fu explained.

"What?" Sagwa gasped, shocked.

"Yes, I'm afraid I won't be able to visit for a long time while we make the journey." Fu-Fu hung his head, saddened. "And even after the journey I won't be able to visit as often as I used to."

"That's not fair." Dongwa frowned.

"You're telling me." Fu-Fu nodded. "I'm sorry but I have to leave."

Fu-Fu reluctantly flew away. Dongwa, Sheegwa, and Sagwa were very upset. Sagwa most of all.

They went back into the palace with their heads down. Soon they reached the upper room where they worked and where The Foolish Magistrate and Tai-Tai slept. Mama Miao and Baba Miao were writing out The Foolish Magistrate's latest rules when they saw their children arrive.

"What's wrong?" Mama Miao saw, noticing how upset they were.

"Fu-Fu's colony is moving far away. Fu-Fu won't be able to visit us that often anymore." Dongwa explained.

"That is very sad news, but I'm sure there's a good reason." Baba Miao said. "Perhaps the cave Fu-Fu's colony used to live in was flooded."

"I'm not sure, not even Fu-Fu seemed to know why his colony was moving." Sheegwa shrugged. "If he did he didn't tell us."

"Well don't worry, a true friend will always make an effort to visit you no matter how far away they live." Mama Miao smiled. "And from what I've seen Fu-Fu is a true friend. How about you three help us out with these rules? The Foolish Magistrate had to pay a visit to the next village's magistrate so he wrote them down for us to copy."

"Okay, it'll take our mind off things." Sheegwa shrugged.

"Eh, I'll stick with Tai-Chi, that always calms me down." Dongwa started to leave. "I'll be outside if you need me."

"Okay." Sheegwa smiled. "Come on Sagwa."

"Okay." Sagwa sighed.

She and Sheegwa helped their parents with the rules, but for once Sheegwa was doing better than Sagwa. Sagwa was barely paying attention to her work at all. She did copy the rules down correctly, but not in the beautiful style she would always write in. This time her calligraphy was plain and emotionless. Baba Miao and Mama Miao let it go, they knew that Sagwa was still upset about Fu-Fu. Besides, the rules were legible and that was the main thing.

Reader was confused by Sagwa's plain calligraphy, but he had a job to do so he decided to look into it after he got back. Even though The Foolish Magistrate had become a lot friendlier since the 'ink-pot incident' he was still very strict about having rules read to the village as soon as possible.

When The Foolish Magistrate, Tai-Tai, and their daughters came home it was the same time as Reader did.

"Oh, good timing I think there's something wrong with Sagwa." Reader said as he caught up with The Foolish Magistrate and his family.

"What makes you say that?" Tai-Tai asked.

"Her calligraphy was plain today, as if she wasn't into scribing."

"That's weird, Sagwa has always been more into calligraphy than even her parents." The Foolish Magistrate was concerned.

Ba-Do didn't say anything, she had already left for the writing room.

"Sagwa?" Ba-Do said.

She saw Sagwa lying on the desk very unhappy.

"What's wrong Sagwa?" She asked.

Sagwa sadly wrote something on a scroll.

"Oh no..." Ba-Do read the scroll. "Oh Sagwa I'm so sorry."

Reader and her family caught up. Cook was there too, having met up with them outside.

"Sagwa's bat friend Fu-Fu won't be visiting us that much anymore." Ba-Do explained, holding up the scroll. "His colony moved far away."

Reader and Cook didn't know Fu-Fu that well, due to their duties, but they still understood since they were friends and hated it when they didn't have time to hang out. Ba-Do's family knew Fu-Fu better and were sorry to hear this. They had grown fond of him and would miss him, though obviously not as much as Sagwa.

"How about you take a few days off to recover Sagwa?" The Foolish Magistrate suggested.

Sagwa just nodded weakly.

As the days passed Sagwa never got better. If anything she was getting worse. She stopped drawing for fun like she used too, and would spend most of her time either in her bed asleep or outside watching the sky. About two weeks after Fu-Fu left she had even stopped eating that much. Everyone else was starting to grow very worried, but nothing they did or said helped.


	3. Sagwa Learns the Truth

One day Sagwa was lying by the pond where her family's catfish relatives lived. A splash of water hit her in the face.

"Oh Uncle Catfish, don't you have any other methods of getting someone's attention?" Sagwa sighed, shaking her head dry.

"Well my fins aren't long enough to tap you on the shoulder." Uncle Catfish joked.

Sagwa just sighed sadly.

"What's wrong niece?" He asked.

Sagwa told him what had happened with Fu-Fu and his colony.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that I always liked that bat." Uncle Catfish sympathized.

"Me too." Sagwa sighed.

"Sounds like you're missing him dreadfully."

"I am, I'm missing him so much that my heart hurts." A tear rolled down Sagwa's face.

Uncle Catfish suddenly smirked.

"Anything else you're feeling?" He asked.

"Well, I feel empty, like a part of me is missing." Sagwa shrugged. "And I've lost my appetite. I'm also finding it hard to sleep since every time I close my eyes I see his face. Why?"

"Because I think maybe you have fallen in love with him."

For the first time in days, Sagwa displayed something other than sadness: shock.

"What?" Sagwa stared at Uncle Catfish. "Why would you think that?"

"Because it sounds like you're suffering from separation anxiety, maybe even a minor heartbreak." Uncle Catfish smiled.

Sagwa thought this over. She was surprised that she had fallen in love with a bat, if it was true. Then she remembered an ancestor of hers, Chien-Chien, who had fallen in love with a fish. That was where Uncle Catfish came from. Obviously, when you were a cat falling in love with a fish was less likely than falling in love with a bat. At least a bat wasn't normally considered dinner.

So she accepted the possibility of falling in love with Fu-Fu, but wasn't sure if it was true. She thought of the past, of all the times they hung out. Literally in Fu-Fu's case most of the time. As she thought of that and of all of Fu-Fu's good qualities she realized that Uncle Catfish was right. But she wasn't sure how her family would take it. Then she remembered that her family also knew the story of their catfish relatives.

That night, Sagwa was the first one in bed. That was because she had skipped dinner entirely. Mama Miao and Baba Miao were next in bed, since Dongwa and Sheegwa had decided to take a quick look at the night sky for Fu-Fu.

"I'm really becoming worried about you Sagwa, you've barely eaten in days." Mama Miao said to Sagwa.

"I know, I just haven't found the will to eat since Fu-Fu left." Sagwa sighed. "You see, I talked with Uncle Catfish earlier today and he told me that I had fallen in love with Fu-Fu. He was right."

Mama Miao and Baba Miao obviously didn't expect to hear this, but they weren't appalled or anything by it.

"So that's why...oh Sagwa." Baba Miao was now really worried: if Sagwa did love Fu-Fu then...then Fu-Fu needed to return to the palace soon.

Dongwa and Sheegwa learned about Sagwa loving Fu-Fu after they reported that there was no sign of him. They were surprised, but slightly happy to hear it. They liked Fu-Fu enough to want him as a brother-in-law but they also knew that this meant that Sagwa would never recover until Fu-Fu returned.


	4. FuFu Learns a Different Kind of Truth

Meanwhile, Fu-Fu was missing Sagwa dreadfully. However he couldn't go back. By the end of the second week he and his colony hadn't even reached their new cave yet. It wasn't until about three days later that they finally reached it. Even then Fu-Fu couldn't leave, he had to help the colony spruce up the cave.

Finally, after all the chores were done, Fu-Fu sat outside thinking about Sagwa. Considering how long it took to arrive he knew they wouldn't be able to see each other often and the thought of it hurt him like a dagger. He ended up spending every night for another week like that.

"Geez Fu-Fu, you should really stop sitting your butt off every night and fly with us." Fi-Fu shook his head.

"I can't, I miss Sagwa too much." Fu-Fu shook his head.

"That furball? Forget about her Fu-Fu you're a bat. And bats stay with their colony." Fum-Fu frowned.

Fu-Fu couldn't believe his ears. So that was why the colony moved!

"Wait a minute! Do you mean to tell me that we moved all the way out here just because you disapproved of my being friends with cats?" Fu-Fu snapped, getting up in a huff.

"Well you had stopped acting like a bat." Fo-Fu was taken aback by Fu-Fu's anger. "You even started sleeping at night and stopped eating bugs as often."

"You..." Fu-Fu was furious, but he wasn't used to being angry so he didn't know what to do next; then he thought of a proper insult. "You rats with wings!" He snapped.

Fi-Fu and the others gasped, dropping their mouths open. Fu-Fu flew deep into the cave, refusing to speak to anyone. Fi-Fu and the others decided to go ahead and leave on their nightly bug-hunt.

Not all the bats left. Fu-Fu's bat friends, who he called Brave Fu-Fu Fighters, and his mentor Wu-Fu stayed behind. They heard the whole thing and were appalled by the other bats' prejudism. They flew to Fu-Fu, who had his back turned towards them.

"We heard everything Fu-Fu." Wu-Fu said. "And we've decided that you don't have to stay in the colony if you don't want to."

Fu-Fu turned around, startled.

"Really?" He asked. "Are you sure it's the right thing?"

"I don't know, all I can say is: listen to your heart." Wu-Fu smiled.

Fu-Fu thought for a minute, and smiled too.

"In that case, I'm going back to Sagwa." He decided.

And the next morning, when everyone was asleep, he left for the palace.

He flew towards the palace during the day and even into most of the night. Finally, he wore himself out to the point where he had to hide in a small cave to sleep. When he woke up it was late morning of the next day so he decided to get moving. Oh, and don't worry about him going hungry, he snacked on bugs whenever he took flight.

As for the other bats, they were shocked to find that Fu-Fu had gone (except for the ones who supported Fu-Fu, since they already knew). They wondered whether they should try to bring Fu-Fu back or not, but the tougher bats decided to give up. If Fu-Fu left the colony, then he wasn't a member of the colony anymore. As for Wu-Fu and the Brave Fu-Fu Fighters, they realized that they missed Fu-Fu, and so a couple days later decided to fly towards the palace too. They planned to move back into their old cave.


	5. Friends Are Reunited

Later on, Sagwa was lying in her bed more depressed than ever. It had been months since Fu-Fu left. But then, there was a flapping of wings outside. Sagwa could hear it because the balcony door was open. She looked up, not daring to believe that it was Fu-Fu. It was probably a swallow. But then...

"Sagwa?" A familiar voice said.

Fu-Fu walked inside slowly.

"Fu-Fu?" Sagwa froze.

"Hi Sagwa." Fu-Fu smiled.

There was an awkward pause, and then Sagwa leapt out of bed and hugged Fu-Fu.

"Fu-Fu! I don't believe it!" Sagwa shed tears of joy. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

Fu-Fu was a little surprised by this reaction. He knew that Sagwa cared about him but he didn't expect her to start crying. But he soon recovered.

"I missed you too Sagwa." Fu-Fu hugged her back. "And I'm back for good."

"You are?"

Fu-Fu told her why his colony had left in the first place. She was shocked, but decided that they should forget about it since Fu-Fu was back to stay. Then Sagwa smiled shyly.

"Fu-Fu, I have a confession to make." She said.

"What is it?"

"When you left I became very saddened, even depressed. One day I was talking to Uncle Catfish, and he came to the conclusion that I had fallen in love with you. He was right, I do love you Fu-Fu."

Fu-Fu dropped his mouth open, not expecting that. He eventually recovered and thought it over. He thought about how he felt about her, and about how their friendship meant to him. He knew how he felt for sure when he looked into her eyes.

"I love you too." He smiled.

Sagwa and Fu-Fu then headed downstairs to tell everyone the good news. Well, tell Sagwa's family and mice friends the good news. The Foolish Magistrate and his family, plus Cook and Reader, would have to be told through calligraphy.

As each character found out they were very happy for the couple. Sagwa's family of course accepted it right away, in fact they were more than happy. Shei-Hu and the other mice heard about the story of the catfish a long time ago so they accepted it as well and were glad that Fu-Fu had returned. The humans were okay with it too, especially Ba-Do since she was glad that Sagwa was happy again. Besides, bats are considered good luck in China so they all felt very lucky and believed that Sagwa was even luckier.

Fu-Fu was welcome to live in the palace again, only this time without a cage. The Foolish Magistrate bought Fu-Fu a gold pedestal that he could hang from during the night. Fu-Fu was even given a collar made out of silk with the Chinese symbol for luck printed on the front.

A few days after Fu-Fu returned, he found out that Wu-Fu and the Brave Fu-Fu Fighters had returned to the old cave to be nearer to him. He was very happy, and when the other humans were told The Foolish Magistrate allowed Fu-Fu's bat friends to visit them anytime they wanted.


	6. A Miao and Fu Marriage

The following year...

"Sagwa?" Fu-Fu said, approaching Sagwa one day in the garden.

"Yes Fu-Fu?" Sagwa smiled.

"We've had so much fun this past year, and I love you a lot, so I was wondering..." Fu-Fu paused for a few seconds, blushing. "Will you marry me?"

Sagwa beamed at him.

"Of course I will!" She said.

They hugged, and later told Sagwa's family the good news. Through calligraphy they then told the humans, and later Fu-Fu flew to his bat friends to tell them. Everyone was happy for the couple, and the preparations begun.

It took time, since a few members of Sagwa's family lived far away and also since Tai-Tai wanted things to be perfect (like she always does). Sagwa and Fu-Fu didn't mind, they wanted to figure out what they would wear during the ceremony and had a feeling that it would take them a while to decide.

They turned out to be right. It took them a few months.

Sagwa finally decided on a red collar with the Chinese symbol for love written on it in gold. Fu-Fu donned a red hat shaped like an upside-down triangle. The Chinese symbol for cat was written on it in gold to represent the fact that Fu-Fu was to become part of Sagwa's family. Normally the wife joined the husband's family, but since Fu-Fu left his colony it was to be the other way around.

The wedding couldn't have been better. Fortunately Sagwa and her siblings formed a truce with the sleeve dogs a long time ago so the sleeve dogs were on their best behavior. After the ceremony there was a grand banquet, with the finest foods. Fu-Fu of course enjoyed eating foods other than bugs, but tried hard not to overdo it due to remembering the last time he ate too many dumplings.

Since Sagwa and Fu-Fu were now married they were given their own bed, which was separate but not too far away from the rest of the Miao family. The bed was a special gift from the village, and had both pillows for Sagwa and Fu-Fu and a bar that Fu-Fu could hang from when he felt like it.

Sagwa and Fu-Fu couldn't be happier, and spent the rest of their lives happily. More so when it was revealed months later that Sagwa was expecting a kitten! This caught everyone off guard, since they had no idea what the kitten would look like. There were dozens of versions of a cat-bat hybrid after all.

Everyone pondered for weeks as to what the kitten would look like. Eventually the kitten was born and revealed to be female, but it was instantly obvious that they couldn't call her a kitten. They had to call her a pup because she looked more like a bat! She looked entirely like Fu-Fu, except she had her mother's fur color (minus the ink markings of course) and eyes.

"The first Miao-Fu." The Foolish Magistrate smiled. "This is amazing."

"No more amazing than those catfish in the pond outside." Tai-Tai noted.

"True."

"What are you going to call her Sagwa?" Ba-Do asked.

Sagwa asked Fu-Fu for the parchment and ink the humans brought with them earlier. They did this with every new birth so that they could always call their cats (or cat-bat in this case) by the name the newborns' parents gave him or her. Fu-Fu flew the parchment and ink over. He and Sagwa had already decided on what name they wanted to give their kitten/pup, so Sagwa instantly wrote it down.

They named her Hui, the Chinese word for ash. After all they did first meet when Sagwa got stuck in an ash pot.


	7. A Flying Scribe

As time passed Hui at first appeared to be like her Aunt Sheegwa. She was sweet and kind to others and loved to play. It wasn't long before she repeatedly expressed excitement for learning how to fly from her father.

Months later, she started to act a little more like her mother. She was constantly exploring and wanted to learn about everything. However, like her father, she was more cautious with her exploring. She planned to do most of her exploring after she learned to fly, when she would be able to visit more locations and be able to get herself out of sticky situations. She also wanted to learn how to write and draw. Mostly draw.

"Hui!" Fu-Fu called from outside one day.

Hui was inside playing with her mom and the mice. But, when she heard Fu-Fu call she reluctantly walked outside.

"Aw dad I was having fun." Hui pouted.

"Hey, who was the one who wanted to learn how to fly?" Fu-Fu smirked.

Hui's face brightened immediately.

"Really? You're going to teach me how to fly?" Hui said excitedly.

"Of course, you're old enough." Fu-Fu smiled.

Sagwa just appeared.

"And when you're done maybe your father and I can teach you how to draw and write." She smiled.

Recently Fu-Fu realized that he could learn how to draw and write by holding onto brushes with his hands.

"That'd be great!" Hui smiled. "How about drawing first?"

"Sure." Sagwa agreed.

For most of the day Fu-Fu taught Hui how to fly, who picked it up quickly. That evening Sagwa and Fu-Fu both taught Hui how to paint. That was a little harder for Hui, especially since she didn't want any accidental ink on her hands. However, in honor of her mom's first great deed, reforming The Foolish Magistrate, she did plan to put an ink mark on her face later.

Speaking of which, Sheegwa got a face mark of her own. It was shaped like a butterfly, minus the antennae.

Hui eventually got the hang of using the paintbrushes and started to enjoy drawing and calligraphy. She grew up to be a great scribe like her mother. Eventually she gained her own ink mark, a simple one since she wasn't that into fancy things. It was merely a thin oval that ran from her forehead to her nose.

Oh, and as for Dongwa and Sheegwa they too ended up with someone. Dongwa finally acknowledge his romantic feelings for Han-Han, who had always liked him back. Dongwa was the only cat she knew who wasn't afraid to show how kindhearted he could be. In Sheegwa's case it was a new cat who had moved into the village. He was kind and playful, but also wise and knew when to be serious. His name was Hu-Tieh, as he was always light and gentle as a butterfly.


End file.
